Search - 2022

 
 
Arthur Mensch, the chief executive and one of the founders of Mistral, a French artificial-intelligence startup, at the company’s offices in Paris in late March.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 14, 2024

Europe’s AI ‘champion’ sets sights on tech giants in U.S.

As Europe vies for AI leadership, Mistral, under Arthur Mensch, is emerging as a formidable contender against U.S. and Chinese giants.
A woman in the Tokai region posts her meals on social media and gives advice to young people suffering from eating disorders.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 22, 2024

Woman with eating disorder looks to help young sufferers via social media

The woman is letting people know that a person’s value is not determined by their body shape.
Two plaintiffs filed a lawsuit with Osaka District Court in hopes of sparking a wider discussion on the rights of death row prisoners.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 15, 2024

Death-row inmates' lawsuit targeting same-day notifications of executions dismissed

The judge said the plaintiffs' social standing — being death row inmates — doesn't allow them to avoid execution when they are notified.
Police officers carry out checks on people arriving to listen to a campaign speech in the city of Oita in April last year.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 15, 2024

Police agency's 'mettle' being tested one year after Kishida attack

The National Police Agency is working with politicians to tighten security at campaign rallies one year after the prime minister was attacked.
Residents of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, collect supplies in the aftermath of the Jan. 1 earthquake. When it comes to preparing for and responding to disasters in Japan, the specific needs of women are still not being sufficiently met. One way to fix this would be to increase the number of women involved in the area of disaster prevention.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 15, 2024

Women’s needs in disasters are still not accounted for

In Japan, women's needs in disaster situations are not being sufficiently met, as the Ishikawa earthquake shows, partly due to poor female representation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi during the signing of the Rasht-Astara railway agreement in May 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 18, 2024

New 'sanctions-proof' transport routes put Russia at heart of global trade

Shipping and rail networks via Iran and an Arctic sea passage could strengthen Moscow’s pivot toward China and India and away from Europe.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as he announces a preliminary agreement with Intel for a major CHIPS and Science Act award, during a visit to the Intel Ocotillo Campus in Chandler, Arizona, on March 20.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Apr 19, 2024

Latest Biden chip deal highlights U.S. semiconductor successes

Samsung is the latest beneficiary of Washington’s efforts to shore up precarious supply chains and protect its national security interests.
China's Olympic gold-medal winning 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay team celebrates on the podium at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on July 29, 2021.  Zhang Yufei (third from left) is among 23 top Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance in the lead up to the Games.
OLYMPICS
Apr 20, 2024

Top Chinese swimmers tested positive for banned drug, then won Olympic gold

The episode sharply divided the anti-doping world, where China’s record has long been a flashpoint.
Home electric vehicle chargers during the Montreal Electric Vehicle Show in Quebec, Canada, on Friday. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is offering more tax breaks to automotive firms to put their electric vehicle factories in Canada.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 22, 2024

Honda nears deal with Canada to boost electric vehicle capacity

The auto sector is particularly important to Ontario, Canada’s largest province by population and home to assembly plants.
Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
CULTURE / Books / Longform
Apr 22, 2024

The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores

Shops without staff, shelves for rent, cafes and meetups are some of the ways the country's dwindling bookstores are trying to survive.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks at a Lower House Budget Committee session in Tokyo on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 22, 2024

LDP to present political reform plan this week as pressure grows

The move will lay the groundwork for an amendment of the political funds control law in the current session of parliament slated to end June 23.
Mai Watanabe, who went by the moniker “Sugar Baby Riri,” dated older men and swindled them out of money by telling them fictitious heartbreaking stories about herself to gain their sympathy.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 22, 2024

'Sugar Baby Riri' gets nine-year prison term over romance scam

The 25-year-old swindled three men out of ¥159 million, which she spent on a Kabukicho host she fell in love with.
Digital platforms have been flooded with disinformation, allowing foreign countries to conduct influence operations and leading to widened social divides.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Apr 28, 2024

How democratic states are regulating digital platforms

Some platforms have been flooded with disinformation, allowing foreign countries to conduct influence operations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping. Ever-growing tensions in the South China Sea all point to an uncomfortable truth for Southeast Asian nations, as well as the U.S.: In this standoff, China is winning.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 24, 2024

Xi’s armada is winning the battle for energy in South China Sea

China’s increasingly assertive stance has sparked a flurry of diplomatic and military efforts aimed at countering Beijing’s footprint.
A man offers flowers in Shari, Hokkaido, Tuesday for the victims of the fatal sinking of a sightseeing boat off the Shiretoko Peninsula in Hokkaido two years ago.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 24, 2024

Hokkaido boat operator probe ongoing two years after fatal sinking

Thirty relatives of passengers plan to file a group lawsuit against the operator's president at the Sapporo District Court as early as next month.
A family prepares to plant eelgrass seedlings during a project to restore the natural ecosystem in Yokohama on April 13.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 25, 2024

Battling climate change, Japan looks to seagrass for carbon capture

Japan, the world's fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has some of the longest coastlines in the world.
A ship, identified by the Royal United Services Institute as the North Korean registered cargo ship Angara, is seen docked alongside a larger vessel at the Zhoushan Xinya Shipbuilding Co. wharf in Zhoushan, China, in February.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Apr 25, 2024

Images show China harboring ship tied to Russian arms transfers

Satellite images show China is docking a ship that has moved containers believed to be full of North Korean munitions around Russia.
Race walker Nanako Fujii wears thick-soled shoes during a national race walking event in Kobe on Feb. 18.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 25, 2024

Japanese race walkers slow to embrace thick-soled shoes

The key benefit of athletes wearing thick-soled shoes is that they are propelled forward by the bounce generated by the soles of the shoes.
Currency rates at an exchange shop in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2024

Yen swoons in jittery trading in wake of BOJ standing pat

The yen’s extended slump has heightened speculation that authorities may intervene in the market.
A monitor shows the yen's sharp decline to  ¥158 to the dollar on Saturday morning in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 27, 2024

Yen drops beyond ¥157 per dollar as BOJ keeps key rate unchanged

Japan’s currency weakened as much as 1.4% on the day and touched a session low of ¥157.79 per dollar in afternoon trading in New York.
Solar panels on Dave Duttlinger's farmland that he leased to Dunns Bridge Solar in Wheatfield, Indiana
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Apr 27, 2024

As solar capacity grows, some of America's most productive farmland is at risk

The solar industry is pushing into the U.S. Midwest, drawn by cheaper land rents and wide-open fields.
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Apr 28, 2024

When will Japan intervene to support the yen?

The yen hit a 34-year low past ¥158.40 per dollar in U.S. trading on Friday, after the BOJ announced a decision to keep its monetary policy unchanged.
A key aspect of AI technology that is often forgotten is that it requires an enormous amount of energy to develop and run. And that’s where utilities come in.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Apr 28, 2024

AI boom’s secret winners? The companies expected to power it

Across the U.S., utilities are preparing for historic increases in electricity demand led by data centers and AI.
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change / OUR PLANET
Apr 28, 2024

Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers

As Japan’s rice farmers prepare for a new planting season, many will be hoping that this summer brings a reprieve from 2023’s brutal weather conditions.
The combined market capitalization of shares listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's Prime section stood at roughly ¥970 trillion at the end of last month.
BUSINESS
Apr 28, 2024

TSE Prime's market cap nears ¥1 quadrillion two years after shake-up

The total market capitalization of the new top tier has grown some 40% while the number of companies fell 10%.
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 29, 2024

Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990

Japan's top currency official declined to comment on Monday, when asked if authorities in Tokyo had intervened in the currency market to prop up the yen.
The Exchange Square complex, which houses the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, in Hong Kong on March 14. Dealmakers say a lot more than words is needed to revive Hong Kong’s weakest IPO market since the global financial crisis.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 29, 2024

China’s new plan to boost Hong Kong IPOs faces major hurdles

Pipeline of IPOs expected to remain feeble while valuations are low, China’s economic outlook is poor, and foreign investors remain distrustful of Beijing.
The Lions' Yuji Kaneko hit .219 in the team's first 25 games of the season.
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / Sac Bunts
Apr 29, 2024

Lions muzzled by poor performance at plate

The record will show the Seibu Lions lost to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks on Sunday after a 2-2 slider from Jefry Yan got away from catcher Takeru Furuichi as Riku Ogata raced home to score the walk-off run in the 12th inning of a 3-2 Hawks win.
Samsung's Seocho building in Seoul on Tuesday. The electronics company said that its first-quarter operating profits had risen nearly tenfold year-on-year — a 931.8 percent increase — amid recovering chip prices and growing demand.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 30, 2024

Samsung says AI to drive technology demand in second half after strong Q1

The upbeat outlook sent its shares 1.8% higher after it reported a more than 10x rise in first-quarter operating profit.
Researcher Mercury Wong holds a rice plant on April 1.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Apr 30, 2024

Hong Kong team plants seeds to safeguard legacy grains

Scientists and farmers in Hong Kong are tending to local varieties of grain they say could be an important food source in the face of climate change.

Longform

Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
Japan’s sauna movement: Relax, refresh, repeat